Audiogram Based Prevalence of Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media Patients Attending Saint Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College Ear Nose and Throat Clinic from 2017 to 2019

Abstract

Background: Hearing loss as a sequel of chronic suppurative otitis media is often conductive, but recent studies have found an additional sensorineural component in these patients, thus demonstrating inner ear damage. Objective: The aim of the study is to assess the prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss and describe in relation to patient’s age, gender, duration of disease, and presence of cholesteatoma in patients with chronic suppurative otitis media attending Saint Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College Ear, Nose and Throat clinic from 2017 to 2019, Addis Abeba Ethiopia Methods: Using retrospective descriptive cross sectional study design, 121 patients with unilateral chronic suppurative otitis media between 10-60 years with clinical and audiological normal contralateral ear from Jan 2017 to Jan 2019 were studied. Patients were excluded if there was history of trauma, meningoencephalitis, chronic exposure to noise, prior ear surgery, previous ototoxic drug therapy, known comorbid illnesses like diabetes, Human Immunodeficiency Virus and family history of congenital or acquired hearing loss. Data analyzed using SPSS window version 20.0. Results: In this study, 62 (51.2%) of patients were female and 59 (48.8%) of cases male with mean age of 29.86 ± 12.6 SD years. The prevalence of SNHL in CSOM was 26.4%. Increased prevalence with increasing age and duration of disease seen. The study showed almost similar prevalence of SNHL between Male and Female as well as between cholesteatoma and non-cholesteatoma ears. Conclusion and recommendations: The prevalence of SNHL in patients with CSOM was 26.4% in this study and increased prevalence with longer duration of disease demonstrated. Increased prevalence with increased age of patient also seen. To prevent these irreversible sequelae through timely medical and surgical intervention providing health education to increase public awareness and expanding ENT services are recommended.. Also there is a need to conduct further prospective studies on determinant factors of SNHL in our country to reveal hidden factors behind this irreparable handicap. Key words: Sensorineural hearing loss, CSOM, Prevalence, Ethiopia